Post by grubl on Apr 4, 2010 17:27:38 GMT -5
I have just listened to your WATCHMEN review and wanted to comment, but I wasn't able to find the original thread, hence this.
Unlike many, when I care about a comic or character, I am far from happy when I hear of a film version being planned. I'd much rather have a great run on a Batman comic book title than another Iron Bat film.
It is too much of a lose/lose venture, particularly with a book like THE WATCHMEN. Too close to the comic book and what was the point? Too far from it, you lose the core meaning, and again, what was the point?
I feel that the film version of THE WATCHMEN was much of the former and, at the end, took a drastic, catastrophic turn towards the latter.
For the first couple of hours, it was fun to watch, a few good performances, some nice visuals, but mostly I felt like I was just sitting through a Reader's Digest version of the book. Nice time, but unremarkable.
Then, the end. In order, I assume, to give modern, shallow audiences a feeling of visceral justice/satisfaction, Night Owl witnesses the death of Rorshach, drops to his knees screaming and beats the shit out of Viedt.
To me, the impact of Rorshach's death in the original graphic novel was necessary and needed to be handled with the same delicacy in the film. He dies alone, his sacrifice unknown and unrecognized (except for Dr. Manhattan, who at that point makes his final break from humanity). Night Owl, unaware, sleeps fitfully in that arms of The Silk Spectre. Ozymandius is unpunished, except for the doubt caused by that chilling final line from Manhattan (which was ridiculously reassigned and thrown away in the film). A dark, haunting, uncomprimising ending, that was so essential to the denouement of the whole tale, gone and supplanted with a shit Hollywood ending.
The words "great" and "brilliant" get thrown around a lot in this era of mediocrity. Since the studios began to control content with an iron fist, and every film became over-marketed, and even talented director's began to sell out , about 1982 , I can maybe name a dozen "great films".
This was not one. This director is a lesser talent.
Unlike many, when I care about a comic or character, I am far from happy when I hear of a film version being planned. I'd much rather have a great run on a Batman comic book title than another Iron Bat film.
It is too much of a lose/lose venture, particularly with a book like THE WATCHMEN. Too close to the comic book and what was the point? Too far from it, you lose the core meaning, and again, what was the point?
I feel that the film version of THE WATCHMEN was much of the former and, at the end, took a drastic, catastrophic turn towards the latter.
For the first couple of hours, it was fun to watch, a few good performances, some nice visuals, but mostly I felt like I was just sitting through a Reader's Digest version of the book. Nice time, but unremarkable.
Then, the end. In order, I assume, to give modern, shallow audiences a feeling of visceral justice/satisfaction, Night Owl witnesses the death of Rorshach, drops to his knees screaming and beats the shit out of Viedt.
To me, the impact of Rorshach's death in the original graphic novel was necessary and needed to be handled with the same delicacy in the film. He dies alone, his sacrifice unknown and unrecognized (except for Dr. Manhattan, who at that point makes his final break from humanity). Night Owl, unaware, sleeps fitfully in that arms of The Silk Spectre. Ozymandius is unpunished, except for the doubt caused by that chilling final line from Manhattan (which was ridiculously reassigned and thrown away in the film). A dark, haunting, uncomprimising ending, that was so essential to the denouement of the whole tale, gone and supplanted with a shit Hollywood ending.
The words "great" and "brilliant" get thrown around a lot in this era of mediocrity. Since the studios began to control content with an iron fist, and every film became over-marketed, and even talented director's began to sell out , about 1982 , I can maybe name a dozen "great films".
This was not one. This director is a lesser talent.